importance of Covington, though it is overshadowed by its greater neighbor. Its industrial interests also are important, and include extensive pork-packing establishments, rolling-mills, glass-factories, distilleries, tanneries, tobacco-factories, cotton-factory, and manufactures of vinegar, furniture, stoves, tinware, bricks, tile, pottery, rope, cordage, etc. There are municipal water-works, built in 1869 at a total cost of about $1,200,000, the entire system now including some 45 miles of mains, and furnishing an abundant supply of water drawn from the Ohio River at a distance of about 13 miles above the city. Covington's annual budget approximates $465,000, the main items of expense being $90,000 for schools, $85,000 for interest on debt, $35,000 for police department, $35,000 for the fire department, $30,000 for street expenditures, $30,000 for the water-works, and $20,000 for charitable institutions. Settled in 1812 and laid out three years later, Covington was chartered as a city in 1834. Population, in 1860, 16,471; in 1880, 29,720; in 1890, 37,371; in 1900, 42,938.
COVINGTON. A town and the county-seat of Tipton County, Tenn., 37 miles northeast of Memphis; on the Illinois Central Railroad (Map: Tennessee, B 5). It is the shipping point for the cotton and other products of a fertile region, and has also flour and saw mills, cotton and cottonseed-oil mills, cotton-compress, etc. Population, in 1890, 1067; in 1900, 2787.
CO′VODE, John (1808-71). An American legislator, born in Westmoreland County, Pa. He worked for several years on a farm; was apprenticed to a blacksmith; and afterwards attained considerable wealth as a woolen manufacturer. He served for two terms in the Pennsylvania Legislature, and was a member of Congress, first as an Anti-Masonic Whig and then as a Republican, from 1855 to 1863, and again from 1868 to 1870. In politics he was prominent as a supporter of Lincoln and as an opponent of Johnson, but is chiefly remembered for his connection as chairman with the special Congressional committee appointed in 1860 to investigate the charges brought against President Buchanan. See Covode Investigation.
COVODE INVESTIGATION. An investigation (1860) by a Congressional committee of five, headed by Covode of Pennsylvania, into the charge made by two anti-Lecompton Democrats that the Administration had endeavored to persuade them corruptly to support the Lecompton Bill. (See Lecompton Constitution.) President Buchanan vigorously protested against the appointment of a committee for such a purpose, on the ground that it would detract from the dignity and independence of the executive office, but his protests were unheeded, and in June the committee made its report, the Republican majority supporting the charge and the Democratic minority denouncing it. The committee, however, was considered to have brought forward sufficient evidence to prove Buchanan's favoritism and his questionable use of patronage. The report was printed in a bulky volume. For a defense of Buchanan, consult Curtis, Life of Buchanan (New York, 1883).
COWAGE, COWHAGE, or COWITCH (from Hind. Kawānch, Koānch) . Short, slender, brittle hairs, which grow on the outside of the pods of plants of the genus Mucuna, natives of the tropical parts of America and Asia. The genus belongs to the natural order Leguminosæ and has a knotted, two-valved pod, divided by transverse partitions. The species are twining plants, shrubby or herbaceous, with leaves of three leaflets. That which yields most of the cowage brought to market is Mucuna pruriens, a native of the East Indies, with racemes of fine purple flowers, which have a disagreeable alliaceous smell, and pods about 4 inches long. Mucuna urens, the ox-eye bean of the West Indies, yields cowage of similar quality. The hairs readily stick in the skin, and cause intolerable itching. Cowage is sometimes used in medicine, acting mechanically in killing and expelling worms, particularly the species of Ascaris (q.v.). That it does not act on the inner surface of the intestinal canal is supposed to be owing to the mucous secretion. It is generally administered in syrup or honey. Before the pods of cowage-plants are ripe, they are used as a vegetable, like kidney beans, and are very palatable. Mucuna utilis, velvet bean, is by some considered specifically the same as Mucuna pruriens, but velvet-bean pods are without the stinging hair of the other. The velvet bean has lately attracted much attention as a forage crop. It is well adapted to Florida and the Gulf States, having about the same value as the better varieties of cow-peas. As a green manure and mulch crop for orchards it is highly considered.
COW BAY. A seaport on an inlet of the same name in the northeast of Cape Breton Isle, Nova Scotia, Canada, 22 miles east of Sydney (Map: Nova Scotia, K 3). A Government breakwater and quay 1800 feet long protect the inlet. Bituminous-coal mines are worked in the vicinity. Estimated population, in 1901, 3000.
COWBIRD. A small North American blackbird (Moluthrus ater) closely related to the red-wing, remarkable for its parasitic habits, and frequenting in small flocks fields where cattle pasture, often alighting upon them to eat parasites, or clustering about their feet to snap up the insects disturbed by their movements; to this habit it owes its names, cow-blackbird, cowpen-bird or bunting, buffalo-bird. etc. This common species (see Plate of Blackbirds) is about 8 inches long; the adult male is rich glossy black, with greenish reflections, except the head, which is chocolate-brown; the female and young are simply brownish-gray, paler beneath. The cowbird is found throughout the United States, from Texas northward nearly to Hudson Bay. In the north it is migratory, but south of the Ohio it is a permanent resident. It is to be seen in small bands frequenting fields and pastures, where its principal food is vegetable (mainly seeds of weeds), with insects caught upon the ground and about cattle. There are usually several more males than females in each band, for these birds do not pair; and the antics and spluttering and guttural squeaks with which the males try to attract the females are most queer and amusing. In the autumn they gather in large flocks and associate with other blackbirds. Two other species are found in the southwestern United States, a third and fourth in Mexico and Central America (of the allied genus Callothrus), and several in various parts of South America.
